May

Time for the monthly update on my New Year Resolutions:

1. Do two triathlons. I'm signed up for two events in June. I swam 5600 yds, rode 156 mi and ran 35 mi in May, so I think I'm ready to go.


2. Coach my daughter's lacrosse team. The season is over and I miss it already. We only lost two games (and one was against middle schoolers) and it was a fun season. Maybe it won't rain so much next year.


3. Learn something new. Not much going on here. Lots of ideas, but no real action.


4. Swim 50 miles over the course of the year. I'm over halfway there. I swam 5,600 yards in May (3.2 miles) for a total of 45,500 (26 miles) on the year.


5. Pass an SAP certification exam. I might schedule this for early July since we are heading to Philadelphia anyway.

update

A (belated) update on the status of my New Year's Resolutions:

1. Do two triathlons. They cancelled the easy one in Blacksburg, so I might have to actually do two real ones. I'm keeping up with the swimming, but the running and cycling are so-so.
2. Coach my daughter's lacrosse team. The season is almost over and we are now 5-2. We lost our last game to Lexington 9-8. It was a good game and all tied up at half, but we fell asleep right after halftime and gave up 4 quick goals because we couldn't win a draw or get a ground ball. After a few minutes, the girls seemed to realize that they were getting killed and brought it to within 2 goals with about 20 seconds left. Sophie won the draw right off and scored to make it a one goal game with 1o seconds on the clock. Then she won the next draw and was just getting ready to shoot when time expired.
   
3. Learn something new. No progress. I'm relearning C++ on a project I'm working on, but I guess that doesn't count.
   
4. Swim 50 miles over the course of the year. Still ahead of schedule here. I swam 7,000 yards in April (4 miles) for a total of 39,900 (22.8 miles) on the year.
5. Pass an SAP certification exam. Need to work on this one.

2-0

On a blustery spring day, we won our second lacrosse game of the year against Lexington, 6-5. They were a tough team and had two players that were basically unstoppable but our team got a slim majority of the ground balls and controlled the midfield to earn the win.

We started off with the first goal fairly quickly and it almost looked like it was going to be a cakewalk, but Lexington came back with two goals scored by their tough center to pull ahead. Kali, who had bravely volunteered to play goal, made a good stop towards the end of the half to preserve the 3-3 tie.

In the second half, Lexington scored first and we got two more to pull ahead by one. Time was winding down and we had the ball in their end with about two minutes to go. Their strategy on defense was to not play the ball behind the goal, but they made a mistake and didn't pick Sophie up coming around to the right at all. Despite my pleas to hold the ball to run out the clock, she scored her 3rd to give us a two goal lead with about a minute and half left.

The Lexington center won the ensuing draw and brought the ball straight down the field and scored quickly. With less than a minute to go, the draw was closely contested and the clock expired with the ball at midfield.

It was a fun one to watch. Lexington is a well coached team and played tough defense with sticks up and very few open opportunities. We had more team speed and did a little better on the ground balls. We need a little work on the the rules (offside, shooting space and running the ball out on a shot were the things I noticed), but otherwise played a great game.

Quarter

Here is the quarterly update on my goals for 2009.

1. Do two triathlons. The running and swimming are in gear. I've done a few rides, but need to step that up a bit.
2. Coach my daughter's lacrosse team. We won our first game last week, so that is going well.
3. Learn something new. No progress.
4. Swim 50 miles over the course of the year. Still ahead of schedule here. I swam 10,000 yards in March (5.7 miles) for a total of 32,900 (18.8 miles) on the year.
5. Pass an SAP certification exam. I've been studying for the SAP PM exam and plan on scheduling it for March April or May (been too busy with work to get this one in).

A mixed bag, but nothing has completely fallen off yet.

Labs

The general use computer lab at universities is going the way of the dodo. I worked part-time in a computer lab in the business school as an undergraduate and it was a great way to pick up some extra cash (I think it paid $10 an hour in the late 1980s for helping people with their projects in dBase and Lotus 123).

Now that everyone has a laptop, it makes sense to dismantle the labs. Although in my experience, supporting a bunch of people with different laptops, software and requirements is much more difficult. It is probably good training for the real world.

First

We had our first lacrosse practice of the 2009 season yesterday. It was great to see everyone out there sticks in hand and ready to go. Everyone was excited to be there and get started.

We have a much smaller team than last year (19 on the roster right now) and more coaching help which is great. At the first practice, we were able to give a lot of individual attention to players and get them started on the right foot. Many of them are beginners and we have mostly 3rd and 4th graders. We have a lot of work ahead to be ready for our first game on 30 March.

One of the toughest things is going to be to find a goalie. It takes a certain kind of mentality to maintain confidence when the ball goes in the net. At this age, it seems like that attribute is the most important.

Butt

It seems that Virginia has joined the 21st century. Tim Kaine signed the restaurant smoking ban yesterday. That brings us into line with every other civilized state in the Union.